New Song Dynasty: My Wife is an Imperial Princess

"I do respect the character of the Tang family father and son." Ye Shuo sighed. "If the news that came back was indeed true, and Tang Qian risked his life to send the news that the Jin army was preparing to march south to attack the Song again back to Tokyo, but no one believed it, then Tang Huan would truly be unworthy of being a father if he didn't curse the emperor a few times."

Tang Qian, the son, wanted to serve the court in his own way, but the court was completely unappreciative and even said that he was exaggerating and making a great mistake. The old father, Tang Huan, was determined to seek justice for his son.

"Then why do you still object to Qingmiao marrying into the Tang family?"

Ye Shuo glared at his son: "I admire the Tang family father and son because they are willing to risk their lives for the sake of the Song Dynasty. Such qualities deserve my praise for their righteousness, but this has nothing to do with the matter of marrying off our daughter. How can they be compared?"

There are many great scholars and literati in this world who inspire Ye Shuo's admiration. Does he have to marry one of his daughters to each of them? The Ye and Tang families do have some history, but now that Tang Qian has married a princess in Youzhou, can he still forcefully maintain his daughter's engagement to Tang Qian? Wouldn't that just make the Ye family a laughingstock?

After a brief silence, Ye Zhao thought of another question: "If the intelligence Tang Qian sent back is true, and the Jin army is indeed preparing for a second attack on the Song Dynasty, what if the capital city of Bianjing falls? Will the Jin army continue to advance south?"

To the south of Tokyo City lies Yingtian Prefecture, and beyond the Huai River lies Yangzhou. If the Jin army does not intend to withdraw but instead continues southward, Guangling City will also be no safe place.

"As the saying goes, it's better to believe it exists than not. We must also be prepared to evacuate Guangling City at any time."

He had already established correspondence with the Ye family in Suzhou, so if things went wrong, traveling south along the Grand Canal to Suzhou wouldn't be difficult.

"What good would going to Suzhou do? If the Jin army continues to pursue us, it will be of no use no matter where we flee. If I were to say, we should stay in Guangling City and fight the invading Tartars to the death. Guangling City has strong defenses and is protected by the outer moat as a natural barrier. If the people of the city are united, it is not impossible to hold the city."

"You certainly dare to play the hero," Ye Shuo sneered. "It's just a pity that everyone else has their own ulterior motives. How can they unite as one to defend Guangling to the death? I'm afraid that the wealthy families in the city will pack up their valuables and flee south with their families as soon as they hear any disturbance. How can the poor people left possibly hold out?"

"So we're just going to hand over the Ye family's century-old legacy to someone else? I'm not willing to do that."

"As long as the green hills remain, there will always be firewood to burn. I, as your father, am also unwilling to give up, but the Jin army is like a beast. If we organize people to defend the city and thus anger the Jin army, what will we do if they massacre the city after it falls?"

Moreover, the Song army's fighting strength is truly lamentable. Even the emperor could not stop the imperial guards from collapsing. How could the Ye family possibly gather all the people in the city?

"It seems too early to discuss this now. We can discuss countermeasures when the Jin army marches south in full force. Recently, the Qiu family has been making quite a commotion. It seems they are planning to restart the weaving workshop. It appears that the Emperor's strategy for dealing with the Jin is still the old trick of exchanging wealth for peace."

The Qiu family were imperial merchants of the Song Dynasty. In the past, nearly 30% of the silk presented to the Liao Dynasty came from the Qiu family of Guangling. After the Liao Dynasty was destroyed, the annual tribute stopped. Now, the Qiu family's weaving workshop is hiring again, which means that the court still needs a large amount of silk.

And where these things went is obvious without even thinking about it.

"The imperial court is wasting the resources of the Song Dynasty to curry favor with the Jin Dynasty. How is this any different from being a slave?"

I always thought that after the Liao Dynasty was destroyed, the humiliating history of the Song Dynasty submitting to other countries would be over. Who would have thought that the northern barbarians would just change their names and still be able to ride roughshod over the Song Dynasty? It's really frustrating.

The Ye family mansion and the Qiu family mansion were only separated by one street. Ye Qingmiao left the backyard, passed through the alley, and soon entered the Qiu family's backyard. She knocked on the door of Tang Qian's mother, Qiu Linghua. Even though Shen Shi was chasing after her, she still couldn't catch up.

Upon seeing Ye Qingmiao sitting in the reception room outside, Qiu Linghua's head began to buzz. This second young lady of the Ye family was truly a troublemaker. In order to see what a romantic and beautiful woman was like, she actually dressed up as a man and went to a brothel. Was this something a lady from a respectable family would do?

If it weren't for the fact that her husband, Tang Huan, had contact with the Ye family when he was serving as the prefect of Yangzhou, which led to that accident and facilitated the marriage between Tang Qian and Ye Qingmiao, Qiu Linghua would never have wanted to have anything to do with this seemingly quirky, thoughtless, and utterly disregardful second young lady of the Ye family.

Fortunately, the Ye family took the initiative to come to the door to discuss annulmenting the engagement some time ago. If Qiu Linghua had really married this dim-witted Ye Qingmiao as her daughter-in-law, she would probably have been driven to her death by anger.

After quickly composing herself, Qiu Linghua put on a smiling face and walked into the reception room: "Qingmiao is here? Jing'er is embroidering in her room, why don't you go find her, instead of coming to see this old woman?"

"Tang Qian disregarded his existing marriage contract and married another princess in Youzhou. Please ask your aunt to help Qingmiao."

"What are you doing? Get up and speak quickly." Seeing Ye Qingmiao bend her knees and about to kneel down, Qiu Linghua immediately stepped forward to help her up. "It's not that I'm unwilling, but it's a fact that Tang Qian is marrying Princess Shunde. I heard from Xiao Qi that this is the idea of ​​that Bojilie from the Jin Kingdom. If he doesn't comply, Tang Qian might lose his life."

"I understand that we were forced into this situation by circumstances. I only ask for an explanation. Even if she is an imperial princess, there should be a proper order of precedence. The marriage agreement between the Ye and Tang families was made nine years ago. Why should it be invalid?"

Qiu Linghua's gaze darted away, and she stammered, "Isn't it because your mother wants to annul the engagement? Your aunt thinks that the prince consort can't have three wives and four concubines. If she keeps your birth date and time, wouldn't that delay your marriage?"

“Cousin, that’s not right.” Shen Xiangyue, who had just arrived, was furious when she heard Qiu Linghua say that. Wasn’t this shirking responsibility?

"The annulment of the engagement was a result of our joint discussion. How can you place all the blame on the Ye family?"

Qiu Linghua turned to face her cousin, then suddenly turned to Ye Qingmiao and smiled: "It was my mistake, sister. Breaking off the engagement is a good thing for both families. It was indeed arranged by your mother and me."

"No, this is my business, and you can't make decisions for me. Since you won't interfere, I'll go to Youzhou and ask Tang Qian. If he also insists on annulling the engagement, then I'll have nothing to say."